Fiat Doblo Van - Strange battery issue

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Wed 2 Sep 2020 10:39
Fiat Doblo Van - Strange battery issue - keymoo

My Fiat Doblo van had no charge when I went to start it. I connected jump cables to my VW Sharan and left it connected for 20 minutes and then went to start the Doblo. It took maybe 30 secs of turning over slowly before it started, but it did start. I left the cables connected for about a minute and then disconnected the negative cable from the Doblo chassis and the engine immediately stopped.

Anyone know why?

I tried to restart it and it was completely dead. No lights on the dash, nothing.

I connected the negative jump lead back on to the chassis (saw a spark) and tried again. Totally dead.

Do I need a new battery?

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Wed 2 Sep 2020 11:20
Fiat Doblo Van - Strange battery issue - elekie&a/c doctor
Very likely yes . You are not going to charge a dead battery from another car in a few minutes.
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Wed 2 Sep 2020 12:30
Fiat Doblo Van - Strange battery issue - Gibbo_Wirral

IIRC it takes four minutes of engine running to replace the energy lost for each second a vehicle is cranked before starting.

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Wed 2 Sep 2020 12:48
Fiat Doblo Van - Strange battery issue - Brit_in_Germany

If the engine stops when the donor battery is disconnected, I would say that the alternator is not working.

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Wed 2 Sep 2020 13:08
Fiat Doblo Van - Strange battery issue - Galaxy

I had that once. Started the car and drove home. Following morning went out to start the car and it was completely dead. No lights, no starter, no nothing! Put a meter across the battery and it measured zero.

I came to the conclusion that something must have broken off inside the battery and it was no longer completing the circuit. Had I had to switch the engine off on my homeward bound journey the previous day then I'm quite sure I would have been well and truly stuck.

New battery cured the problem completely, as elekie has suggested. You would normally be able to measure 12 volts with a voltmeter on even a completely discharged battery but that clearly wasn't what I had.

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Thu 3 Sep 2020 15:03
Fiat Doblo Van - Strange battery issue - keymoo

Halfords came out and replaced the battery. It was dead, alternator fine according to the OBD scanner.

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Thu 3 Sep 2020 15:43
Fiat Doblo Van - Strange battery issue - Andrew-T

I thought that when using jump leads the idea was to keep the engine of the 'donor' car running ? Or is that a no-no with 21st-century electronics ?

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